Reading the news, especially in extreme heat or extreme cold, there is often a story about a child, a baby, a pet, or a person with a disability; left in a vehicle by a parent/owner/guardian. This person or pet didn't survive, dying from overheating or freezing in a terrible way. The parent/owner/guardian returning to the vehicle and finding such is devastated. The whole community is devastated. The parent/owner/guardian is sometimes subject to criminal charges, making it even worse.
There have been many attempts to detect and prevent such occurrences. Many monitor for movement and temperature assuming the temperature exceeds a certain value or falls below a certain value while movement is detected is indicative of a left-behind being, but how do such systems account for the initial time when the vehicle is occupied before the air conditioner or heater brings the temperature within acceptable ranges? How do these systems determine that there is a being (e.g., a child) in the vehicle? Many determine presence of a being by integrating sensors into child seats or into the car seats to detect the weight of the being/child. These types of detectors require complicated installation and, after time, are prone to failure as detector switches often fail due to buildup on contacts of spring failure, especially when children spill food and drink on the car seats. Further, the sensitivity of such weight detector switches often does not have the range to detect a 60 pound child as well as a 5 pound premature child. Further, small pets are often unable to be detected by seat-mounted pressure sensing switches as pets do not like to be constrained and often run freely in the back of a vehicle.
What is needed is a vehicle safety system that will determine when an operator of a vehicle vacates the vehicle while a being (e.g. a child) remains in the vehicle.